Black and Gold
by percussaresurgo
Summary: A series of (mostly) unrelated Gadge one shots.


"To climbing ladders!" Finnick cheered, raising his glass at Gale. They'd gone out in celebration of Gale's promotion, and over the course of several hours, Finnick had made a toast to just about every variation of "you got a raise and a promotion" imaginable. Gale laughed, clinking his beer against his friends.

"Cheers, buddy."

As he took a sip, he locked eyes with the blonde girl playing darts yet again. Ever since she'd walked in about an hour before, she'd been making eyes at him. At least he thought so. His game hadn't been quite the same since his breakup with Joanna six months before, but he liked to think he still knew when a woman was into him.

"Why don't you just go introduce yourself?" Finnick asked. "You've been practically staring at the poor thing like she's a piece of meat."

"I have not!" Gale spluttered indignantly. His head snapped toward her once again as he heard her laugh loudly at something her dark-haired female companion was saying. She looked younger then him, but not by more then a few years. Gale would guess she was maybe 22 or 23. She was dressed simply, jeans and a black t-shirt with some sort of delicate silver necklace, her gold hair pulled messily back from her face. She had a highball glass in her hand that, if he had to guess, he'd peg as a Jack and coke.

"Seriously, man, just go talk to her," Katniss suddenly spoke up. As usual, she'd mostly been sitting quietly, nursing the same beer in her hand all night. She wasn't much for going out, but she'd been convinced by the special occasion that partaking wouldn't be the worst thing.

The blonde's friend and fellow dart player suddenly looked over at them with narrow green eyes.

"Katniss?" she asked, approaching the table. The blonde spun around as well, seeming to debate if she should continue to stand near the dartboard or make her way over to the table. Her blue eyes locked with Gale's again and she seemed to make up her mind, shuffling over behind her friend.

"Annie!" Katniss said brightly. "Guys, this is Annie. She's the day care supervisor at the YMCA that I was teaching archery at for a while."

"We miss you over there," Annie said. "Especially Peeta."

Katniss colored slightly and ducked her head. "Oh, well…"

Gale laughed a little, and both out of his own interest and to save Katniss any further embarrassment, he turned toward the blonde. "Hey, I'm Gale."

"Madge," she said, sticking out her hand and enthusiastically shaking his hand before wincing slightly. "Sorry, that was…weirdly formal."

He laughed again, gesturing to the chair at the end of the table. Annie had already slid into the booth next to Katniss, and Finnick seemed to be doing his best to charm the dark haired woman.

"Take a seat?"

"Sure," she chirped. She looked between Annie and Finnick, who had fallen easily into some sort of flirtatious conversation while Katniss peeled the label on her beer bottle. "Looks like I might be here a while."

"So Madge, what do you do?"

"I'm a second year law student by night, ballet teacher by day," she said. "And you?"

"What an interesting combination," Gale teased. "Plan on impressing juries with your impressive pirouettes?"

"I'm going to let that slide since you seem to at least know something about ballet."

"My little sister Posy, she loves it," Gale admitted. "Can't miss a recital or I'll catch hell for it."

"Posy…" Madge said slowly. Her eyes lit up. "Wait, is your last name Hawthorne?"

"Yes," he said slowly. "You know my sister Posy? My nine year old sister Posy?"

"Well she's in my Level 2 class, so I would hope so," Madge laughed.

"Miss M!" Gale exclaimed, pointing at her. "No way!"

"The one and only," Madge said, flourishing her hands around and taking another sip of her drink. "You never told me what you do."

"Oh, I work at an architecture firm," Gale said. "Not nearly as exciting as a ballet dancing lawyer."

"Ballet dancing _almost _lawyer," she corrected. "So, Gale. Please tell me that you are, in fact, the older brother that helps Posy practice her pliés."

Gale felt his face heat up at the thought of her picturing him doing bad ballet with his baby sister. "Guilty as charged, counselor."

Madge threw her head back, laughing loudly. Gale couldn't help but laugh, too. "Oh man, that is too good. I know there's a few of you, but I never would have imagined it being a ridiculously good looking adult brother."

"Ridiculously good looking, huh?"

Her jaw dropped, blue eyes wide. She smacked her hands over her face. "I cannot believe I just said that."

"If it makes you feel any better, you're pretty ridiculously attractive yourself," Gale teased. She spread her fingers and peeked out of them.

"Really?"

"Really really," he said cheekily. "So let me see your face."

She dropped her hands with a small laugh. "I am so embarrassing."

She downed the rest of her drink and bit her lip. "With that being said, I'm gonna go grab another one. Be right back."

He watched as she hopped up and weaved her way toward the bar. He tuned in to the other conversation, which involved Annie and Katniss discussing whoever this Peeta guy was. Annie was sending him a text seeing if he'd like to come meet them there, and Katniss was quite obviously trying to act disinterested despite her blatant eagerness. Gale hadn't seen Katniss behave that way often, and observed the scene with amusement.

He glanced toward the bar, wondering what was taking Madge so long, when he saw a large, toned guy with a buzzcut leaning on the bar and in toward her. She was giving him a polite, close-lipped smile as she attempted to get the attention of the bartender to order another drink.

"Just one drink, sweetheart, come on now."

"Thank you, I'm really okay though."

"I made a bet with my friends that I would go home with the most beautiful girl in the bar. And it looks like tonight is your lucky night."

Gale watched the bulked-out asshole step closer to Madge and watched as she stepped back, the polite smile dropping from her face.

"I _said no." _

The man reached up and put his hand around her forearm, tugging her closer to him. "Hey, when a man knows what he wants…"

Gale didn't even register that he had gotten up and was storming over to the bar, and when he reached the pair he wasn't sure what he was going to do. His instinct was, of course, to throw a punch, but he'd told himself that he was too old for bar fights. Besides, he was supposed to visit his family the next day and his Ma would not approve of a black eye.

"Babe, what's taking you so long?" he heard himself say. _What the fuck are you doing, Hawthorne, _he asked himself. He put his arm around her shoulders and tugged her closer.

"You with her?" the guy grunted out, looking at Gale. Gale felt Madge tense underneath his arm, and watched as she stepped up toward the man and away from Gale's arm.

"Listen up, you Muscle Milk chugging douche canoe. Look at me, not at my boyfriend, alright?" she snapped. She grabbed his face and looked him square in the eyes. "The reason I'm not going home with you has _nothing _to do with him and _everything _to do with the fact that you are a pathetic man child who can't take no for an answer. I want that to be very clear to you."

"Shut up, you little bitch," the man spat, smacking her hands away and grabbing her forearms. "You were all smiles until this asshole showed up. You get real brave when you've got someone to kick my ass, right honey?"

Gale made a move to step forward but Madge beat him to it. Before he could do anything, she swung and clocked the guy square in the face. He recoiled, and as he did so, she kneed him in the groin. She brushed the hair out of her face, gave him a cola-sweet grin, and linked her arm with Gale's.

"I didn't need to wait for that, _honey." _

She turned back to the bartender, who had watched the exchange with interest. "Are you going to ask me to leave, or can I please get another Crown and coke?"

"Whatever you want, little lady. On the house."

"Thank you," she chirped sweetly. She turned to Gale, leaning in closer to him as the man's friends dragged him off. "And thank you, darling."

"You seem like you had it pretty under control, apparently," he laughed. "A ballet teacher who can throw a punch. Who knew."

"Size is no guarantee of power," she shrugged. "Hey bartender! Can I get two shots, too?"

"Yes ma'am! The name's Chaff, by the way."

"Nice to meet you, Chaff. Madge," she said, reaching over and shaking his hand before taking the two shots he poured.

"So, boyfriend," Madge said, handing one to Gale. "Since I got you a free shot, do I get your number?"

"Oh, you definitely get my number."

"Good."

She winked and tossed back the shot, as he did he. They went back to the table that housed their friends, welcomed with whoops and hollers. Gale was introduced to Peeta Mellark, a blue eyed blonde who looked like he could be related to Madge. She kissed him on the cheek when she saw him and Peeta excitedly recalled a similar story that had happened during their years at undergrad together.

By the end of the night, Gale was walking out with Finnick, Madge, and Annie, Katniss and Peeta having left to "go on a walk" some time before. Gale waved down a cab and held the door open for Madge.

"Your carriage awaits."

"When I text you tomorrow, you'd better answer it," she smirked. She placed a kiss on the corner of his mouth and climbed into the cab.

"You know I will."

He shut the door and watched the yellow car drive off. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Finnick exchanging numbers with Annie and decided to start the short walk home by himself. He arrived in just a few minutes, collapsing onto his bed and reading the clock that said 3:00 a.m. Before he knew it, he was out cold, shoes and all.

He awoke at noon, cursing and trying to brush his teeth and shower simultaneously to make it to his mom's house by 12:30. As he struggled into his boxers and jeans, toweling off his soaking hair, his phone pinged. He lifted it up, expecting an angry text from him mom or maybe a victorious one from Finnick regarding his pursuit of the preschool teacher, but instead it was from an unsaved number.

_Hey there boyfriend. Any interest in taking me out to dinner tomorrow night? _

He grinned, quickly typing back.

_Absolutely. I'll pick you up at 7. _

By the time he was out the door, it was 12:35, but any chewing out he received from his mom would be worth it, he decided.

When he arrived home and listened to Posy's enthusiastic story about what Miss M had told her about the upcoming performance of the Nutcracker, Gale grinned internally. If only Posy knew that her ballet teacher had a mean right hook and a smile to die for.


End file.
